Apple's top patent lawyer will soon exit the Cupertinian mothership, according to reports. As is usual with such high-profile departures, the question arises: did he jump, or was he pushed?
The imminent departure of Richard "Chip" Lutton was reported on Tuesday by Reuters, citing the ever-loquacious "sources familiar with the …

It would be like Apple management

To blame the lawyer for their loss, instead of really owning up to the fact that they were infringing on Nokia's patents. Fr that, the "blame" if there is blame to be assigned, should go to the engineering staff and the management overseeing them for either not inventing "first", or for designing something outside the bounds of Apples' existing owned or licensed IP portfolio.

Nokia payment

OK, let's get this straight, once and for all.

Apple had no issue with paying for a Nokia license on FRAND terms, it's just that Nokia wanted more than FRAND and they wanted cross-licensing. This was all stated and up front from the beginning. So the battle began with each side throwing bigger and bigger stones. For all us plebs know, Nokia did finally agree to FRAND terms and didn't get any cross-license deal. There would have a been a back-payment for unpaid dues and maybe a one-off to get rid of Nokia's other claims.

So probably a win-win for both sides.

Why the guy left, could be due to Samsung's recent complaint that some of the legal people Apple are using have past associations with Samsung.

On another matter, I find it amusing HTC should complain of 'Apple not competing fairly' just recently when one by one the Android makers are coughing up royalties to MS. Of course, the MS patents are court proven patents and quite possibly Apple is using HTC to prove their patents.